The Brumbies say their first loss of the Super Rugby season, at the hands of the highly-physical Stormers, provides lessons that will help them come finals time. Jake White's men were outplayed by the Stormers, who won 35-22 at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, and hence they missed the chance to match their best start to a season of five consecutive wins.

The Brumbies got to within three points with seven minutes remaining, but Stormers winger Gerhard van den Heever intercepted a pass by lock Peter Kimlin to seal the visitors' fate.

"The way they came back showed a little ticker," Brumbies coach Jake White said of his team. "With seven minutes to go that game could have gone either way and I felt the momentum coming our way but it wasn't meant to be."

The Brumbies hadn't played the Stormers since White took over in 2011, and he said the match had provided a valuable lesson with the sides strong contenders to meet again in the finals.

"They play a unique style of rugby," the former Springboks coach said. "Their defence is consistently the best in the competition so we had to find way in which we could break them down, and we didn't get it right. It's another learning curve for us as a group to make sure if we play them again we can play them again."